Worrisome
by HeathenVampires
Summary: Valka is hardly the most traditional Viking, but she finds herself with a very traditional concern when the ships don't return as expected. Valka/Stoick one shot... thing.


**A short little something borne of a conversation I had earlier... it's very beyond my comfort zone so lets see what happens.**

-HTTYD-

They'd been married less than a year when Stoick first left her to hunt for the nest. There were murmurs in the village as Valka kissed their future chief goodbye, watched him hop up on deck next to his father, their current chief.

Valka should be going with her husband. But as everyone knew... Valka wouldn't kill dragons. She'd failed dragon training by flat out not turning up, no matter how her parents scolded her. Gone so far as to threaten to lock herself in a dragon cage alone before she ever raised a blade to one.

Stoick... he thought she was _mad,_ but somehow he adored her anyway. Valka couldn't have done better than the future chief asking for her hand. Especially when they fought together; Valka wasn't a pacifist, she'd fight alongside the others when the Outcasts came to raid. Stoick had even complimented her uppercut punches.

So Valka watched as he sailed off with his father. Ignored the mutters of the villagers and headed home to her sewing, to the lessons from Stoick's mother on cooking that just never seemed to take.

"You'll need to shape up if you're to take care of my son! He likes his food, my lad."

Valka grit her teeth and tried, ignoring the unspoken threat that she didn't think Valka worthy of her son the chiefs heir. And at barely a tender seventeen when they married, it wasn't uncommon for Valka to not be pregnant yet but that was clearly the expectation of her. Sometimes she slipped out at night, went to the woods and watched dragons fly past the island... surely if they only wanted a war, they'd simply wait for half the residents to leave and take them out?

There had to be more to it...

By their second anniversary, Stoick was chief. His mother taken by sickness only a month before his father fell from injuries sustained in battle, departed for Valhalla and leaving Stoick behind. Her love was a little awkward, far less confident without his father to guide him and Valka did her best to support him.

That included one utterly _disastrous_ venture, where the pressure of their villagers pushed Valka to the ship. They found dragons, and Valka found herself face to face with a Windstriker, but the blade in her hand fell limp.

 _She **couldn't** do it._

Someone knocked her aside and killed the dragon anyway, and Stoick lifted Valka from the floor, asking if she was alright rather than berate her for embarrassing him, for failing him.

Valka didn't go on the ships after that.

They fought about it sometimes, but Stoick never put a blade in her hand and asked her to kill the beasts. He asked her to stay inside, stay safe instead. Valka helped out other ways, treating the wounded and acting as chief while Stoick was away.

Four months before their third anniversary, Valka kissed her husband again, bade him farewell as he climbed on the ship, heavy axe slung over his back and thick fur chiefs cloak draped about his broad shoulders.

Every time he sailed off, Valka feared he would never return. They lost _so_ many ships, so many people to searching for something that may never be found...

Valka returned home, the chiefs hut feeling huge and empty around her without Stoick there. Their bed was enormous and cold. And to top it off, Valka had come down with a bad stomach, could scarcely keep anything down and it was starting to make her feel faint. She buckled down and kept going, helping keep the village running and counting down the days until the sailors may return.

Clearly, she was pushing too hard, as Valka collapsed partway through a skeletal-turnout Council meeting. She came to with Gothi, their village Elder and head healer poking and prodding at her before scribbling in the dirt floor. Not being accomplished at Gothi speak, Valka looked to someone to translate.

"The chief will have an heir!"

Valka processed it in chunks before realising what that meant; she was having a baby!

Then she threw up again.

Dizziness and nausea wracked her constantly, but the villagers left behind rallied around her, bringing various things sworn to stay down even for the most fussy of babies, none of which her body retained for long. Valka lost weight as her belly rounded, and as the weeks rolled by she lived mostly on yak milk, the wateriest broths and bed rest filled with fretting.

Morning sickness evaporated at her estimated three month mark or thereabouts, allowing Valka to get back up and work, regain a little fullness to her frame. And panic. Oh, she worried so much. Stoick had yet to return. It had been two months.

Valka couldn't raise a future chief _alone._ How would she ever teach their child to kill dragons?

"Valka!"

Stoick's best friend, blacksmith-sans-hand and maverick with dragon tales, Gobber stuck his head around the hut door where Valka was eating tuna covered in crushed fruit. He made a faint "bleurgh!" noise, then his face spread into a beaming grin.

"The ships are back!"

Valka stood, the strangest sensation filling her belly. She placed a hand there, felt it again and something touched her hand.

"Ye alright lass?"

"Oh yes, I'm fine. I think our baby knows their daddy is home."

Laughing, Gobber and she hastened down toward the docks. Despite them racing, the news had clearly reached the chief before his wife had.

"Congratulations Stoick! Everyone is so excited!"

The audience parted to reveal the wife to husband, Stoick immediately looking down to where Valka's belly had already swollen a little against her tunic. He was filthy and smelled terrible, but he was also ecstatic as he scooped Valka up, span her around as only he ever did.. Valka relaxed for the first time in months.

Their babe would have both parents home.

-HTTYD-

 ***is Not Good at writing Stalka is it obvious***


End file.
